From Vassalage to Citizenship: Loyalty and Community in the Black Militias of Colonial Lima

From 1810 to 1812, delegates representing the various provinces and overseas territories of Spain attempted to maintain continuity in the absence of their exiled king by drafting their nation’s first liberal constitution. They proclaimed a constitutional monarchy with universal male suffrage, with one major exception: they excluded descendants of Africans from citizenship. In response, leading members of the free black population of Lima, Peru drafted a pamphlet in protest. They did not demand inclusion in the new spirit of liberalism; rather, they fought to maintain privileges they had always believed they could access. The pamphlet’s authors drew on three centuries of memories of loyal, royal subjecthood to protest that a "right" they had always had was being stripped from them. This paper compares and contrasts the language of the pamphlet with royal petitions from black and mulatto limeño militias in the centuries prior, to show how their understanding of vassalage, citizenship, claims, and rights changed over time.